


Paradise Lost

by hypertensivehitachiins



Category: Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Genre: Angst, Disney, F/M, Family, Other, Reality, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-04-22 12:16:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4835012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypertensivehitachiins/pseuds/hypertensivehitachiins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She juggles putting food on the table and raising her little sister. There's very little time for romance in her life. Nani wonders if her life will ever get better. (one-shot)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paradise Lost

It's hard to be eighteen, and to have a boy ask you what you're doing tonight, and to not know what to say because you don't want to bring him into the mess that is your life.

The bills pile up. The money you make at the luau only goes so far, and some months you have to pick between paying the electricity bill and buying groceries. The electricity bill always wins. You buy the cheapest pizza -- the kind that tastes like cardboard with plastic cheese on top, and drag your feet out of the store. You don't even look at the plastic doll you've had your eye on for Lilo: she costs seven dollars, with her slender limbs and jet-black hair, but you know that every penny counts.

Your work makes you feel slimy -- covered in grime you can never wash clean. The sacred rituals of your people, prostituted on a stage for the pleasure of tourists...

The drums pound relentlessly. The man in the patterned shirt with the obese stomach gives you the eye, but you keep on walking.  
During the school year, things get better. At least you have somewhere to send Lilo during the day. During the summer things get bad. You know she can fend for herself, but you can’t leave her alone -- the guilt piles up, higher than the dishes in the sink. You pace the place like tigers -- it's too empty, too messy, too big; you scream at each other and slam the doors.

Kapu. "Keep out."

You stare at the poster of Mulan in your room as you wait for sleep, running over the social worker's visit in your head. Your stomach rumbles. "Just so you know -- this has not gone well." You think about your heroine: her highest highs, her lowest lows, her miraculous redemption. You don't have room to think about your parents.

"This isn't working out."

The thickset manager folds his arms over his chest.

For a moment, you feel relief. You don't know where you will go from here, but you feel relief anyway -- it pours over you like summer rain. You can't feel the ground beneath your feet, but you motion to Lilo and Stitch to follow anyway.

The boy watches the three of you leave footprints in the sand.


End file.
